This is Johanna Rothman’s September 2026 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this newsletter.
When I first learned to program computers, I was not very good. I had to practice organizing my thoughts, thinking through the problem(s) to solve, and using the computer language to actually solve those problems. I struggled—and loved it. The practice was fun because I was trying to master several new skills at once.
I’m not done learning valuable new skills. And I still enjoy the practice.
I continue to practice my nonfiction writing, with a little bit of fiction thrown in for fun. I’m also practicing certain cooking skills, because I have way too much hazelnut flour.
The more I practice these skills, the more valuable I am to you as a writer, and to my family and friends as a cook.
But just practice is not enough. If I don’t enjoy the practice, I won’t stick with it. I won’t learn or master these valuable new skills. As a result, I won’t master anything. I suspect you might have the same problem.
How can we enjoy the practice? For me, the struggle is part of the enjoyment of mastering new skills.
Struggle Allows Me to Enjoy the Practice
Right now, I see way too many people using shortcuts that prevent them from practicing their valuable new skills. Here’s a typical example:
- Person 1 asks a chatbot to summarize an email from Person 2. Then, Person 1 asks the bot to reply to the email with a bot-generated reply.
- Person 2 asks a bot to summarize the email from Person 1 and update a presentation. (IMNHO, that presentation should have been a document, but that’s a different problem.)
- And so on and so on.
What does Person 1 learn? Not a thing.
How about Person 2? Again, nothing.
What is the value of the work? I don’t see the value at all. When my bot talks to your bot, why are we even involved? Why does anyone think this “work” is valuable? Maybe there is value somewhere, but I don’t see much of that.
Instead, imagine this scenario: Person 1 struggles to master enough writing to clarify what they think. They ask Person 2 to review that writing. Person 2 has questions at various places, and Person 1 edits their work to clarify the ideas for Person 2.
All of that clarification is value. Not just value for the reader, but value for the writer. I’m not suggesting that writing has to be difficult. But the more we struggle to clarify what we think, the more valuable the final outcome is. Even practicing my cooking skills helps me master new foods and tastes.
Value Tells Us Which Skills Are Worth Mastering
When I think about valuable skills, I often think of the most human skills:
- Communication skills: writing and speaking
- Organization skills: both physical (spatial) organization, as well as organizing data for later interpretation and understanding. (Even if an LLM creates that understanding.)
- Planning (and replanning) skills, so we can start and finish even when life throws us curveballs.
There are more, but I’ll stop there. They all require us to learn from our past behavior and adapt to what we know now and want to master. That’s why all of these skills require practice. And the more we can decide to enjoy the practice and the struggle, the more likely we can master these new skills.
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- Create an Adaptable Life Blog to see the weekly question.
- My Books.
- My store.
- Managing Product Development Blog
- Johanna’s Fiction
- Tip Jar. (My newsletters will remain free. And I do want to offer you an option for you to show how much you value my work.)
Till next time,
Johanna
© 2026 Johanna Rothman